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GAEA Japan
Gaea Japan (trademarked as GAEA Japan) was a Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion.GAEA's name comes from the Greek mythological goddess of the Earth, Gaea or Gaia. History GAEA was founded in 1995 by Chigusa Nagayo, a professional wrestler who achieved huge success in the 1980s with her tag team partner, Lioness Asuka, as the Crush Gals. She helped to train a lot of the younger wrestlers that were featured in GAEA. GAEA's formation was first announced at a press conference held on August 24, 1994. Present at the event were charter members Nagayo, KAORU, and Bomber Hikaru. GAEA's first rookie auditions were also held on this occasion. On April 15, 1995 the new promotion held its first show. It was at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall, and was called Memorial First Gong. The event was a sellout and received good press. From this point on, GAEA held monthly shows at Korakuen and also occasionally went on the road to other Japanese cities. GAEA's reputation grew as a result of the acquisition of some well-known wrestlers, and the organization of some very successful interpromotional shows. GAEA acquired highly-respected freelance wrestler Akira Hokuto on September 16, 1996 and Toshiyo Yamada on July 3, 1997. The promotion established a relationship with the Japanese hardcore promotion Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW) on July 29, 1995, and worked with the prominent American promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1996. As a component of the relationship with WCW, two GAEA wrestlers Akira Hokuto and Toshie Uematsu, became the first WCW Women's Champion and WCW Women's Cruiserweight Champion respectively. GAEA's most famous storyline involved the reunion of 80's tag team sensations, the Crush Gals, in 2000. The Crush phenomenon in Japan was roughly akin to the American phenomenon of Hulkamania, and the first appearance of the reunited partnership, on May 14, 2000, at GAEA's fifth anniversary show, drew the attention of the entirety of the Japanese press. On March 15, 2004, a weekly show with matches from GAEA started on The Wrestling Channel. On April 10, 2005, GAEA closed its doors for good, with a farewell show at the Tokyo Korakuen Hall called Eternal Last Gong. Championships Main article for singles title: AAAW Singles Championship Main article for tag titles: AAAW Tag Team Championship GAEA established the two All Asia Athlete Women's (AAAW) titles, a singles championship and a tag team championship, on November 2, 1996. Originally, the singles belt was labeled "Heavyweight", while the tag team belts were labeled "Junior Heavyweight", but the weight class requirements were eliminated on May 31, 1998. The first AAAW Champion was GAEA founder Chigusa Nagayo and the last AAAW champion was Aja Kong. The AAAW Tag Team Championship was first held by Meiko Satomura and Sonoko Kato and last held by Toshie Uematsu and Ran Yu Yu. Also, Uematsu's WCW Women's Cruiserweight Title was solely defended in GAEA after Uematsu won it in the United States, until the title was abandoned after GAEA and WCW ceased their relationship. Notable Alumni *Aja Kong *Amazing Kong *Ayako Hamada *Akira Hokuto *Carlos Amano *Chigusa Nagayo *Chikayo Nagashima * Devil Masami * Dynamite Kansai * KAORU * Lioness Asuka * Manami Toyota * Mayumi Ozaki * Meiko Satomura * Ran Yu Yu * Sugar Sato * Sonoko Kato * Toshie Uematsu * Toshiyo Yamada External links *GAEA official site